I've been told that there are people who watch the Superbowl for the game, and I suppose that must be true. It seems, however, that most people watch it for the commercials - not because they want to be convinced to buy anything in particular, but instead simply to enjoy them. In a rather similar vein, I enjoy reading advertisements on the web. Considering that I hardly ever buy anything, and when I do it's more often than not the sort of thing that doesn't get advertised, serving up ads to a specific profile that Google may be able to discern about me isn't going to be particularly productive, or lucrative. In economic terms, even when an ad succeeds in successfully matching the content of a page (or the specific email that I've opened), and even when placing that ad is very inexpensive, the return on investment is about as close to nil as is possible.

But that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the ads. Actually, I often delight in them - sometimes for being able to so clearly correspond to the mail I'm reading, and sometimes because only a Herculean leap of imagination could have brought such an ad to me. Frankly, even if I never purchase anything, I have to admit that I'm often very appreciative of the attempt that's being made to meet my needs and desires.